EPISODE SEVEN: ACTIVITY SHEET
ACTIVITY
African American Historical Events and Records
Family History and genealogy research is based on records. Records are created by events. Understanding events in African American history that generated records for genealogy research is an important step in family history. Below is a timeline that needs to be filled in with events that are important in African American history. After you fill the timeline in, select the events that would have led to the creation of important records in African American history. For example, what records would have been created by World War II that would be important in African American family history research? (Military records)
A. The 15th Amendment was passed. All citizens, regardless of race or gender were given equal protection of the law.
B. The United States Constitution was approved. Slaves had no rights as citizens, and were counted as three-fifths of a person.
C. Supreme Court declared that segregation of the races is unconstitutional in Brown vs. Topeka case.
D. 250,000 people attended a civil rights rally in Washington D.C., where they heard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream"speech.
E. (April 12) - The Civil War began. Slavery was a major cause of the fighting between the North and South.
F. The first black slaves in North America arrived in Virginia.
G. (March 3) - The Union Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to assist freed slaves.
H. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. Blacks and whites joined together to legally try to eliminate segregation.
I. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Congress, and declared that discrimination on the basis or race, sex, religion, or national origin was unlawful.
J. "Separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.
K. Author Samuel Sewall wrote "The Selling of Joseph," as the first American protest against slavery.
L. An Act of Congress prohibited the import of slaves into the U.S.
M. (December 6) - The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was passed, abolishing slavery.
N. Rosa Parks, a black woman sparked the civil rights movement in the South when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man and was arrested.
O. L. Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia. He was the first African American to be elected a governor in the United States.
